A Global Benefits Leader On Why The Plant Doesn't Lie About The Soil With Scott Floyd

Some people wait until the leaves turn yellow and crispy before they decide to move the plant. I want you to sit with that for a second because today's guest built a 15-year career on knowing exactly when to repot. Welcome to the NeuroLeadership Edge. I'm Claire Hayek, NeuroLeadership expert, TEDx speaker, and founder of Mind Soul Purpose team building. I spent more than 20 years leading high-stakes projects and teams under pressure in engineering. And this whole podcast is about guesting leaders and talking about pressure and what it does, how our brain defaults to our pressure patterns, and how to actually move on from that. Instead of reacting, directing. Today, you'll learn why staying loyal to the wrong context can quietly cost you your growth. You'll learn how to recognize the exact moment your learning stalls before it becomes an actual crisis. And you'll also learn why the leaders who last are the ones who know when to leave, not just when to stay. My guest today is Scott Floyd. Scott leads global benefits and wellbeing at Cisco Systems, supporting employees and families across more than 80,000 people in over 95 countries. Imagine that. He's also one of the leaders whose stories shaped my upcoming book, and I'm so proud to have him in it. My upcoming book, The Leadership Skill Nobody Taught You: Calm Under Fire in the Age of Disruption. Please welcome Scott Floyd. Scott, how are you?

I'm doing so well, Claire. Great to be with you today. And thank you for your kind introduction. I wish though that I could really claim the 15 years. It's actually been about 30 years of working through all these pieces. So I just loved that because I was like, oh, just one of my experiences was 15, but yes, it's been like 30 years of working now. So it's— Yeah.

I think the 15 years was probably on the family business side of things. Uh, I don't know if that's close to it, but yes, thanks for clarifying that. Uh, I'm sure our listeners are very excited to hear your story. I mean, I I really want to highlight your story. I think it's really great. So let's dive right in. Tell me about the moment that shaped who you are as a leader today. What happened and what did it force you to decide? Let's put it this way.

I know, I love that. And I think our ability to talk about our journey, it's funny to me because when you're young, you sometimes like, at least I was, you know, other people may be immediately confident in everything, but It wasn't as easy for me to talk about some of my early experiences until later when I really realized that for us leaders, we are authentically shaped by so many of our work steps and career steps. For me, family business, I have come to really respect because it was my early, quickest, and fastest learning. There was that family dynamic, but there was passion, there was strong vision, and it wasn't just a single family business. There were multiple parts of that family. We brought different strengths to that work. And so for me, that shaped me so much more than I realized. It prepared me for moving into more complex workplaces. It helped me appreciate early on how to work through conflict. What does stakeholder management mean? And how to really lean on a variety of different individuals for their strengths. So family business ended up being something I look back at now and I thank every one of them for who I am today. But it took me a minute to say that because at first you're like, Was family business an easy leg up and you just got a fast track into the workforce? I think for those in family business, you've realized that it actually creates its own unique environment.

Right. So tell us a little bit about the basically, I believe, 15 years working in the family business earlier in your career. How was that like? What was the tension like around succession? And it's normal. It's just part of— family-owned businesses and the expectations are there. I think the reason we want to talk about it is not only to highlight a family business situation, but the idea is to highlight also different kinds of pressures sometimes that we have to learn from and redirect and grow from, right? That's really what I would like to highlight.

You know, I appreciate that because our family business was really quite smart about bringing in an affinity partnership. And so, we actually met with other family businesses and There was some wisdom that I valued. They brought up things like some of the best is actually for people to go out and have kind of a first career and come into family business with new ideas. Other family businesses I know have such strong values, they'd prefer to grow their leaders in place. What we found with ours is that we did have a variety of different family members with different skills. But I think one of the things that came out in it too is that there are unique pressures. One, family businesses often wrestle with succession. It takes a lot of thoughtfulness to create a sustained— and there's statistics that say many family businesses only make a few generations before they may struggle unless they have a very strong plan. The other thing that kind of comes out is family businesses— you think that your regular job now has total life integration. Family business adds the fact that you might be going to Thanksgiving with the CEO or going to a family picnic with the marketing head. And so it really is all that much more, I think, about how you define the hats that you wear and requires a certain degree of clarity and directness. And so it's, it's unique. And I think it's for individuals to understand that, which also makes it very interesting when you decide, is this a fit for me? Because when we now start to say this might not— and for me, it was actually some outside conversations with a, with an executive coach, a behavioral leadership expert, that even was raising the question, You know, in some cases with family businesses where you have founders, you may, if you realize you're not aligned on values, have to make one of the toughest decisions you'll ever make, which is, should I continue?

Yeah. So you did mention to me your mentor at the time and the phrase that that mentor gave you, something about feeling complete. Can you tell me what that means? How did that guide your career, your next steps?

I loved this because that is an age-old question. When do you go? Some people think about when they go in hard situations, they may be facing burnout or other things like that. But at various points in your career, you need to come to grips with the concept of feeling complete. And I think that at the time I would have said, I think I was thinking at the time in terms of my thermometer, because I was, I was having a hard time, I think, with when I would get frustrated and Being able to separate work from family get-togethers and other things like that.

Hmm.

But I think what was actually happening too is it was a right place where I was like, hey, you know, the folks that really want to continue with this really want to, and I'm seeing something different for myself. But mine was anchored. I didn't have the words then, but I have them now, that my learning journey and my readiness to stretch myself further was becoming complete in the context that I was in. And this individual said to me, you are fighting things that other people are not interested in fighting. So you need to decide. She even joked with me, said, you, if you need to go in the corner and recite the Serenity Prayer, you know, that classic one of help me to accept the things I cannot change.

Right, yes, yes.

If you don't know the Serenity Prayer, look it up. But it is a powerful place to which you could say, hmm, maybe I am reaching something where it's time for me to make the change, not because of them or because of this or that, but it would be the best thing for me to continue my journey. And it was a good thing to do, and it was hard. It wasn't easy to leave. I've been able to talk about it with everyone involved, and I think everyone would say that this was a good thing and a right thing. And the one that meant the most to me was my own father, who later said, and this is a kindness anyone can give, I'm proud of you, I want you to be happy, and I'm glad for what you're accomplishing. So that gave me a different level of complete that I wish on anyone that's gone through that. Later, with some other coaches, folks talked about the fact that we do need to see ourselves like a plant and are we in the right soil. And I think that's that point that you brought in too, which is—

Yeah. So hold on. So tell me about that image. You know, you, you, when you— yes, I was talking to you, you explained it exactly with that image. I, I want you to say it so that there's a plant and there's soil. Yes, the intro says it pretty much. Tell me about this, because I feel that sometimes an image says way more than words can say. Please, let's dive a bit deeper into that image and example.

Well, it's funny because I'm at that phase of life, me and my spouse, where we have different things going on. We've become a little bit more of a plant home. I actually have a really lovely one right up here. And I just think there's a lot of power to this, that, you know, when you think about the image of a plant and it having the right soil and having the right nutrients, that the concept of moving a plant to the right soil makes good sense. And so I might have thrown it out casually, but actually is a great analogy because after the family business, I went into a very large organization where the heartbeat of my career happened. And I grew the most during that kind of second phase. It expanded my influence. It helped me tune into communication and helped me grow immensely. And I did some big things. But I reached a point where I had grown and I had talked to another coach about feeling complete, that my learning journey was reaching its max.

Yeah.

And I wanted to stretch into some new scope. And so, I traded complexity in a U.S. company to moving to this global company that I'm in. And it has been powerful. It stretched me in new ways. It's a public company. It moves faster. It's in tech. But what's been awesome is where you use the skills you have. But my plant has been growing because I'm in an environment, especially now with the age of disruption and AI, where it is learning on steroids.

Wow.

And one of the greatest things that you can do is check in with yourself to say, am I growing? Am I learning? Am I thriving? And I just think that connection to much like a plant, you can very quickly see. And I just think that is where many of us need to check in with ourselves, because I think we need to see ourselves as this vibrant living thing, and we need to keep that at the forefront and use it as a kind of an indicator of where we are.

Yeah, I mean, you know, this is, this is such a good example of what your mentor mentioned to you. In my opinion, it's one of the clearest examples of calm under fire that I've heard. Most people treat discomfort, the discomfort of staying and doing the status quo, you know, the status quo period, this discomfort of stagnation, as something to kind of push down on or outlast, you know. But your mentor gave you permission to treat it as data instead, if we look at it, you know, if you look at it that way.

Yes.

And that reframe, that single reframe, From enduring the feeling to reading into the feeling is basically what pressure-proof leadership is all about. Being under a certain pressure to make a decision or feel stagnated or feeling lost is data. Pressure is not the bad guy or the bad gal, right?

Yes.

It's there to teach us. It's there to challenge us. But what we default to is what's the most important thing. Do we default to a pressure pattern, a survival pattern, or do we really are able to Zoom out and get back into our strategic brain, our brain CEO, the prefrontal cortex. Get out of the survival brain and go, what is this telling me right now? Where's— what's happening? And how can I read into this? Is there something to read into?

Wow!

As opposed to just default to running or controlling or being quiet or procrastinating or being in denial. I mean, there's so many pressure patterns. It'll take a whole hour to go through them. But I find that very interesting when you look at it neuroscientifically to this. Is there something to read into as opposed to just default to running or controlling or being quiet or procrastinating or being in denial? I mean, there's so many pressure patterns. It'll take a whole hour to go through them.

Wow.

But I find that very interesting when you look at it neuroscientifically. side of things, how that works and how you reacted and how your mentor helped you, um, basically look at it from a different angle, right?

I love what you're saying on even that concept of treating the situations that we're in as data. What's powerful about it is it's teaching us to notice, and we really need to notice, and we need to hold intention some of these different points. Like you said, the Leaders are under pressure. We also know, and all of us that have been further in our career know, we thrive in this much like, you know, exercise is putting your body into a form of stress, and you kind of notice and you know what comes out the other side of it. A similar way to this too is we know in our careers what we build over time is that intuition to know, much like even change curves and other things in life, there's initial excitement, there's the reality, there could be that valley of of despair, and then you eke your way out of it. And some of what's so cool about what we do is we've got to be tuned into our environments and what we need. Like, I'll give you an example. There's things about my job that are very hard right now. There's been some high ups and downs, excitement. There's the reality. There could be that valley of, of despair, and then you eke your way out of it. And some of what's so cool about what we do is we've got to be tuned into our environments and what we need. Like, I'll give you an example. There's things about my job that are very hard right now. There's been some high ups and downs. There's been things to work through. But throughout it, what I try to do is I notice, I breathe, I, um, I check in to say, am I still learning? Am I growing? Are the people around me learning and growing? And I just think that no matter how far down the road you are, you have to check in. Am I starting to succumb to fear? Because fear would have kept me from making that hard decision with the family business. Loyalty. It's so interesting because You know, some people get out too early on challenges, especially early in a career. Some people jump too soon, right before the really valuable breakthroughs happen. Sometimes loyalty and fear cause us to stay too long, and our impact and our influence is actually shrinking because we're like this plant that's yellowing. But I think there's this other side where it's like you've got to keep checking in and know. And so for me, feeling complete would be when learning stops. I think one of the things that I worry about right now in industry Is I'm seeing a lot of people that talk about, oh my gosh, work has changed so much with AI. Am I still relevant? Am I still needed? But actually, it just feels like we're entering this age where it's like, no, no, no, don't, don't get scared off by this. Activate learning, activate noticing, recognize that right now more than ever, a multigenerational workforce is needed. And so we just got to really tune into our natural human responses. And I think to the point you made too about how our brains are wired.

Yeah.

It's a powerful time to be noticing even more and really checking in with, am I still growing? Am I still learning? And that helps a lot.

Yes. And this is the whole thing. Having that ability or building the ability, training your brain to practice the ability, the skill to be able to pause, think, even if it's 30 seconds, we're not talking 30-minute meditation here, just to have that No, literally. I mean, if you think about it, because we talk about mental health, we talk about mental fitness, we talk about— and that's wonderful. That's great. That is important. We need to talk about it.

So important.

But people don't understand. You know, we talk about resilience. What is resilience? It's words. And I think it's also a trend in the workplace. And it's good because we're having the conversation. If we compare it to before, we didn't even have the conversation. So we're good, right? This is Good thing.

Yes.

However, sometimes people don't understand. They can't— they don't know what it means. And what I'm trying to say here is it doesn't have to be this big thing. It's little resets during your work, just before a meeting or having to make an important decision. Like the example you gave, Scott, you stop, you think. You know, we stop thinking sometimes. We just react.

Right.

And sometimes just taking a 5-second, 10-second breath, deep breath, and just— or just going, go get a coffee, come back. Go get a glass of water. Stretch your legs, come back. You already interrupted the survival pattern and you're in the right brainwave literally to think creatively and strategically as opposed to just react. And that is so underestimated. And so, AI is the thing now. But there's so much and there's always going to be something. The idea is, where are you? Which brain are you in? How are you showing up? How grounded are you? And are you able to make a decision with clarity, focus, and show up with calm authority when everybody around you needs it? And are you willing to— if you're not, are you willing to practice and train your brain? to do that because that doesn't happen because you decided all of a sudden to be self-aware. You need to practice it. It happens with the pressure. And this is why pressure is not the bad guy. It's there to wire that new habit. It's there to wire that ability to become resilient.

Okay?

Because resilience is built with pressure. If there's no pressure, how are you going to be resilient, right? So, I'm trying to kind of give that positive sense of You're always gonna have challenges, whether it's at home or at the workplace. It's how you— what you do with it. And the example you gave, Scott, is brilliant, and it's so simple, and you apply it every day. I can tell. Am I wrong?

Well, Claire, I think, I think you are so spot on on this. You and I modeled it today, you know, as we joined today from many different things.

Absolutely.

We had some little technology snafus, but you know what's so nice is here's what I know when I dial in with you. Claire, it's always an energizing, powerful experience to be with you. So I could walk into it and say, I can't wait to be with Claire today. And then you get the chance— like, we get the privilege of having this conversation. And so we try to teach this at our organization as well. Little resets, little steps. I've heard of CEOs that said touching the doorknob reminds them, I'm going into a new meeting with new people. Or I had a call earlier today that I was like, there wasn't a good outline for the conversation, but I walked in, I said, I cannot wait to meet with these people. I know they have passion and a great topic. And I just framed— and it's just those little things where you just— I think this is where you can say, you know, we have the privilege of continuing to make an impact and build great things with other people. And it just changes our mindset. So thank you, Claire, for modeling that and what you shared.

Well, thank you for doing the same thing. I think, you know, self-awareness was definitely— young leaders are very interested in it. And I think we need to, as senior leaders, instill that and practice that. It's never too late. The brain is neuroplastic. You wire it just before you die. There's no limit.

That's right.

You can rewire. And I think more and more people are talking about this. And this is why I have this podcast because I want to talk about bold leadership and what we've learned and what my guests learned and bring it to the listeners. Because maybe somebody listening right now and going, oh my God, I'm exactly going through this. And thank you, Scott, for talking about this and bringing this forward. So, Here we are. Time always flies on the show. Let's do rapid fire. I'm gonna throw some questions at you. These are short answers, and then we'll wrap up right after that.

You ready?

All right.

I'm ready. And look, I'm gonna have to practice it in real time. I'm gonna have to just be ready. So go for it.

Oh, no, no pressure.

All right.

Deep breath. I feel like I'm on a game show or something.

I'm ready. Hit me with it.

You know, where's the buzzer, right? Anyway.

I know, I want points. I want points if I win.

You got it, you got it. All right, so here's the first question. Give me one word you'd use to describe pressure.

Oh, uh, I just think of it as energy. Everyone around is creating energy, and so you can respond to it in different ways. And oftentimes when pressure comes down I think curiosity is the right answer. Tell me more about the energy. What's motivating you? Those things help. And it turns your brain into a receptive one because now you're like, I want to learn about this energy. It's a, it's just a little technique.

Yeah, absolutely. I love it. What do you do in the first 60 seconds of a hard conversation?

Yeah, that especially even sometimes you don't know what's coming, right? You can get on a call with someone and not realize that the conflict or the expectation gap Is there— I think the very first thing is breathe. Again, curiosity. Treat it as real. The best way to work with people is to take them very, very seriously. So when you've got conflict, don't treat it as an interruption. Don't treat it as unimportant. It is the most important thing because it is in your lap. And it's one of the privileges we get to have. So just don't downplay it. Own it, breathe, get curious, and dig into it.

There's always something you learn, right? Yeah, absolutely.

Well, yeah, how do you, how do you take it, right?

How do you show up in front of it?

Yeah, one author I read just said that we— one of the most important privileges we get is to work with human beings. And the most— the best way to humanize a person is to take them very seriously, which also means respect. And so I think even in a source of conflict, I mean, I even use this hack when someone cuts me off in traffic. I have to tell myself something like, if they're late to work one more time, this must be it. So it must have been very important for them to cut me off. It's an immediate hack to be like, are they doing okay? All of a sudden you go to empathy instead of like wanting to like, you know, rear back up and let your anger kick in, you know?

Exactly. And sometimes I, um, I tell myself, I can't really see who's driving. Maybe it's an elder. Maybe somebody doesn't, you know, and just, or somebody's driving their pregnant partner to the hospital. I mean, you gotta change completely. And you're doing this first in a way for yourself to calm yourself down because you're nervous.

That's right.

Thank you. And then you just have a different perspective and you get really creative with things. And what is the alternative? Getting angry? How is that really serving you? It's not. So we're definitely— that's why I like you, Scott. Oh, we're so— we're tuned. Okay, we're tuned in. So, um, Best advice you ever ignored?

Oh gosh, it's, um, it probably is in the realm of maybe even giving up, turning my back on something. I think there's times when people, they like, you know, especially even for those people that are most loyal in our life, they may give us that quick reaction. It's important to treat everything as information. Like when you said data earlier, I think this is why it matters who is in your circle of people that speaks to you, because for some people they may have a very tight circle with very trusted people, but if their point of views are too consistent, it could cause you to take action on something. I've even had my wife say to me, oh, you're getting frustrated about that, but guess what? That's your typical cycle. Give it, give it, give it a couple months, give it a few, give it a couple weeks, whatever it is. She's like, you'll change. And so it's good to spread with people too that also are like, No, I'm not going to advise you to give up on that. Stick with that. So I think sometimes you even have to say, that's not the right advice for me right now on this. And that could even be thanking them and appreciating their voice, but not going with it.

All right. Thank you, Scott. I'm going to have to wrap up. So if this conversation— anybody listening right now, if this showed you anything, it's that pressure doesn't build leaders by accident. It actually builds them when you learn to read it instead of just survive it. And if you want to know exactly where pressure is costing your team right now, I built a free 4-minute diagnostic. It literally maps where pressure is limiting leadership and team performance. Your leadership as well, not only your teams. Go to clairehayek.com/pp-scorecard and you'll get your results instantly. And as you all know, I'm launching my book. It's very soon. It's called The Leadership Skill Nobody Taught You: Calm Under Fire in the Age of Disruption. And it's coming out September 9th. If you're interested in joining the early readers group with exclusive access to the book before it actually launches. Go to clairehayek.com/book to sign up. And finally, do hit the subscribe and follow to the NeuroLeadership Edge. Every single subscriber helps this show grow, reach further, and bring you the caliber of guests and conversations that actually move the needle. Scott, any last words before we say bye to everyone?

No, I just want to acknowledge and thank you for how you approach this work, for what you are sharing with individuals. All of this is a journey and learning, and this is a skill. Like you said, I loved how you framed too, this is something we can practice for the rest of our lives. And when we model this well, both in ourselves, to those around us, our coworkers, or even to loved ones, which we can't forget that a lot of these principles translate, it has an impact on people. And we have to see ourselves as having an impact on people that we get to enjoy the rest of our lives. So thank you for what you do and the way in which you do it, Claire. It encourages me, and this has been a boost for me today to spend time with you.

Thank you, Scott. Thank you for, for coming to the show. As always, everyone, lead boldly, stay human, and turn every challenge into a gift. You can always find one gift.